“Man cannot live on chocolate alone, but woman sure can.”
Author Unknown
Author Unknown
Black Forest Gateau…
The Black Forest region (‘Schwarzwald‘) in Germany is essentially known for three distinctive features: its highlands, scenery and woods, the traditional cuckoo-clock, & the typical southern German dessert- ‘Black Forest Gateau’ or ‘Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte‘ ( literally “Black Forest cherry cake”) .
The Black Forest gateau consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings.
Here’s the one I baked for my mother’s birthday over the weekend. We don’t get maraschino cherries here, so I used regular canned cherries. The gateau was a delicious, light cake…& it disappeared in next to no time!!
It was finger licking good.
Chill it well for the flavours to mature!
YUM! YUM!!
Ingredients:
Sponge
Eggs – 6 (300gms)
Powdered Sugar – 150 gms
Flour – 125gms ( flour= half the weight of the eggs 150 gms – 3tbsp (for cocoa) i.e. 125gms )
Cocoa – 3tbsp
Cornflour – 2 tbsp (makes the cake texture lighter)
Baking powder – 1tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Vanilla Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Sponge
Eggs – 6 (300gms)
Powdered Sugar – 150 gms
Flour – 125gms ( flour= half the weight of the eggs 150 gms – 3tbsp (for cocoa) i.e. 125gms )
Cocoa – 3tbsp
Cornflour – 2 tbsp (makes the cake texture lighter)
Baking powder – 1tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Vanilla Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Cream – 500ml (whipping/35% fat)
Icing Sugar – 4-5 Tbsp
Canned cherries – 1 tin/approx 1 cup of chopped bits; reserve a few halves for the top; reserve the syrup too .
Juice of 1 lime
Cornflour – 1 tsp
Method:
- For the sponge:
- Preheat oven to 190deg C , reduce to 180deg C after 10 mins of putting the cake in.
- Line, grease & flour a 9″ tin; A spring form cake tin is always better.
- Sift the flour +cocoa + baking powder + salt + cornflour 3 times.
- Beat the eggs and sugar well with beater till very thick ribbon falls and holds in place for at least 5 seconds (beat for approx 10 mins)
- Add vanilla essence and beat for 1 min.
- Gently fold in the sifted flour; mix lightly so that air doesn’t escape.
- Turn gently into tin and bake for 30-35 mins till done.
- Once done, remove from tin after 5 mins and leave on rack to cool completely. Cut horizontally into 3-4 layers.
- Filling:
-
Mix a tsp of cornflour in the cherry syrup. bring about 1/2 cup of the syrup to a boil, add the cornflour mix, & boil till thick. take off heat, add lime juice, and leave to cool.
-
Whip the cream with 4tbs powdered sugar until thick and holds peaks. Reserve 1/2 for icing the top.
- Take the remaining cream & mix in the chopped cherries.
-
Place the bottom most layer of the sponge on your serving platter, spread 1/3 of the cherry syrup, spread 1/3 of the whipped cream and bits over it. Make sure you remember to sprinkle the layer with the syrup only after placing it in position on the serving platter.
- Repeat with remaining layers.
Melt some chocolate; cover the wrong side of the cleaned leaves with it; leave to set for about 10 minutes in the fridge. Peel off very gently. These can be made days in advance. Store in a cool place.
- Spread the remaining cream over the top and sides of the cake.
- Decorate with chocolate shavings, cherry halves, chocolate leaves, dragees etc.
- Chill well before serving.
A slice of ‘Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte’!